Electrical display devices

Claim 1

An electrical display device comprising a plurality of alphanumeric character spaces in rows and columns, each alphanumeric character space comprising an array of intermittently energized light emitting elements, said device comprising a character generator for generating a parallel data code from an input alphanumeric character code, a column energizer comprising a plurality of shift registers corresponding to the number of columns of elements within said alphanumeric character space, means for coupling said parallel data code to said plurality of shift registers whereby each of said shift registers receives a separate data bit, and means to couple said shift registers to said elements whereby selected elements become energized in correspondence to data bits stored in said shift registers, means for generating a signal for scanning elements in a row, said scanning signal generating means providing for scanning said rows recurrently at a field rate of at least Approximately 50 HZ so as to prevent flickering of said light emitting elements, and means for sequentially coupling said scanning signal generating means to said elements, said elements becoming active when a row scanning signal is contemporaneously received by an energized element.